“Time is a fickle thing; it can be a friend or an enemy, a precious gift or a dreadful curse. Time is an unpredictable force, a complex web that’s strung out so long that it became a tangled, irreparable mess that one could only dream of unravelling—”

Junmyeon warily cracked open his eyes, wincing at the unwanted intrusion of light emitting from his running laptop. Slender fingers rose reluctantly, brushing against the cool touchpad until the cursor hovered over the pause button, silence soon echoing within the small room.

Junmyeon slowly lifted his head from the polished wood of his work desk, mentally cursing himself for choosing the worst possible place to fall asleep. He rubbed his fingers against the sore crick in his neck, releasing a heavy sigh at the sight of slightly crumpled paperwork where his head had laid. While choosing to idly skim through the first document on the unfinished, flattened stack of work, Junmyeon shivered at the thought of the definite scolding he'd receive from his boss later on.

“Oi, Myeon? Are you awake yet? You don’t want to be late again, dude.”

Glancing away from the cause of his impending doom, Junmyeon finally pushing himself off the desk, Junmyeon gave a low, incoherent grumble in response, twitching at his urge to use the restroom. Quickly glancing around his room, Junmyeon groaned at the accumulating mess that littered his floor: an empty cereal box laying against the foot of his bed, several opened textbooks scattered throughout the room, an assortment of dress shirts sprawled across the floor which he never had time to put away—a complete mess. Promptly saving the problem for later, he grabbed the closest pair of khaki pants and strided to his closet to pick out one of his few remaining unwrinkled shirts, leaving his disheveled room with a dramatic grunt.

“Oh shut up, Sehun, I am not that moody in the mornings,” Junmyeon mumbled, slamming the bathroom door closed. Approaching the mirror above the sink, Junmyeon combed his fingers through his hair and gaped at the semi-dark circles underneath his eyes. “I look like a fucking vampire, just my luck—”

“Don’t insult vampires like that,” Sehun chirped from outside the bathroom door. Junmyeon jumped at the close proximity of the voice, reluctantly deciding to feign ignorance to his roommate’s questionable personal space values. “Hey, Junmyeon, what do you want for breakfast?”

Eyebrow twitching as he gently washed his face, Junmyeon stifled a tired sigh. “Do you really have to ask that now?”

Pushing his arms through the holes of his shirt, Junmyeon felt the sudden urge to bash his head against the wall. Quietly calming himself, he smoothed down the front of the shirt with his palms, frowning at how the dull grey colour made his skin appear lifeless. “... I honestly don’t know, Sehun. Eggs, I guess?”

Sehun snorted from through the wooden barrier, sharply knocking the door twice before his voice became more distant. “I’m making pancakes!”

Finally exiting the bathroom, Junmyeon warily squinted at Sehun’s back retreating into the kitchen. “What was the point of asking me then, asshole.”

“To be polite, of course,” Sehun smugly responded, turning on the radio as he gathered his ingredients. “Anyways, why are you so passive aggressive this morning?”

“Passive aggressive?” Nodding in approval to the soft jazz streaming from the device, Junmyeon entered the cozy expanse of the kitchen, reaching for his coffee brewer. “I just realized that I didn’t finish any of the paperwork for lab today. I’m supposed to be testing the time machine and then handing in the report on it, but lo and behold, none of it is complete.”

“Duh,” Junmyeon exhaled, watching as coffee began pouring into his cup. “It’s just… really tiring sometimes. This guy gets angry over every little thing and he somehow always manages to place the blame onto me.”

“If you hate him so much,” Sehun began, raising his voice over the crackles of the radio, “why don’t you switch management? Ask the department to put you under a different boss?”

Junmyeon slapped a hand onto Sehun’s shoulder, rubbing a rough circular pattern onto his thin shirt. “My boss is, somehow, one of the best scientists of this generation. It took me ages of blood, sweat, and tears to even be considered for this internship, I can’t throw it away just because he is a prick.” Pulling out his mug from under the brewer, Junmyeon exhaled over the cloud of steam. “If I want my time travel findings to be taken even a little bit seriously, I need to stay under a guy with credibility.”

Sehun frowned, creases appearing on his forehead. “Speaking of your time machine thingy, how is that going?”

“I think my team and I are onto something,” Junmyeon stated, puffing out his chest with a feeling akin to pride for the first time that morning. “I have hope for later today, I’m sure that the machine will work.” Glancing at Sehun from over his mug rim, he cocked his head to the side. “If it doesn’t work, my boss is going to actually castrate me for wasting his time.”

“Well, for your sake, best of luck.” Sehun ogled at the mixing bowl, gagging over his pancake batter. “Myeon… I think the milk is expired. The batter is all chunky.”

Junmyeon grimaced, slowly inching away from Sehun and whatever concoction he had made. “Yeah, nice talk, buddy. I’ll be going now.” His eyes roamed the kitchen, resting on a bundle of bananas in the fruits basket. Pulling one away from the bunch, Junmyeon patted Sehun’s back with his free hand. “Clean up this mess and don’t be late for uni. You have a psych test today, don’t forget!”

Sehun hissed as he placed down the bowl, picking up the gallon of milk he had used and sniffing the rim. He immediately pulled away, slightly nauseating as he gave his roommate a small nod. “Yeah, yeah, you have fun jumping through time. Buy me milk on your way back?”

ㅤ

┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈

ㅤ

❝ My life’s a loop that cycles

Look at the clock, it’s vital

Seconds are never final

Spins around alot like vinyl ❞

ㅤ

April 14, 2027.

3:15 pm.

ㅤ

Junmyeon fiddled with the wires attached to the sides of the machine chamber, tuning out the dispersed conversations around him. The machine was almost ready for its first trial run, and rounds of cold anxiety coursed through Junmyeon’s veins. This was the moment he had been working for ever since he had initially joined the internship; months of endless devotion poured into creating something that was meant to be groundbreaking, revolutionary. Junmyeon thought back to the monotonous cycle his life had been recently, awaking every day to work with his group until his brain went completely numb from exhaustion. He really needed all that constant misery to have been worth it.

After a couple minutes of restlessly messing with the control panel, Zitao pulled him away from the machine, face contorted with prolonged fatigue. “Junmyeon, it’ll be okay! We worked really hard these past two weeks, it should all go perfectly fine. Breathe, it’s going to be great.”

With Zitao tightly clutching his shoulders, Junmyeon felt his tensions slightly dissipate, a warm sense of calm replacing the chilling gap. “Yeah, you should be right,” Junmyeon whispered, eyeing the time machine from his peripheral field. “When should I enter it?”

Zitao picked up a file from a crowded work desk, flipping through various pages until he landed on a timesheet. “I guess now would be good, we’re all ready to take readings.”

Junmyeon felt his heart rate accelerate at the prospect of entering the machine so soon, his vision blurring at the corners. “That’s… really soon.”

“We have all the time in the world, Jun,” Zitao reassured, picking up a pen and marking the top of the file. “Just keep in mind, after we finally test this, we can take a well deserved break. Man, none of us have had one in ages.”

Fixing the collar of his lab coat, Junmyeon mutely nodded. After a beat of silence, he responded, “it’s like we’ve been in this… this time loop forever, just doing the same calculations every single day, making the same progressions, doing everything like we’re some sort of robots.”

Zitao hummed thoughtfully, observing Junmyeon’s nervous demeanour. “I certainly feel the same way, but you are thinking too pessimistically. As Einstein had once said, ‘time is an illusion.’ Meaning, it’s whatever you make it to be. If you think it’s a waste, it’s a waste. If you believe it was time well spent, it is exactly that.”

Junmyeon softly sunk his top row of teeth into his soft bottom lip, seeming contemplative. “Do you ever feel trapped by time, Zitao?” Junmyeon turned his body towards the time machine, faintly reaching out for the latch to the chamber.

Hiding a smile behind his hand, Zitao shook his head. “Time can’t trap you unless you let it.” As he watched Junmyeon unlatch the door to the chamber, he spun around to the rest of the laboratory. “Guys, get ready to take readings; process starts now.”

Junmyeon studied the inside of the chamber, chiding himself and the rest of the team for not making it more comfortable on the inside. Lights frames the ceiling of the chamber, with the seat and walls heavily cushioned with stiff, grey material. Hesitantly seating himself inside the machine, he noted the array of scientists shuffling outside of the machine, rushing to finalize all variables before beginning.

“Are you ready, Junmyeon?” Zitao peeked his head into the machine, a slight gleam of sweat adorning his brow. “Everything is ready when you are.”

A slight smile flitted across Junmyeon’s face as he grasped the tight insulation inside of the chamber. “Time doesn’t wait for anyone, right?”

Zitao choked on his breath, dropping a hearty chuckle. “Ew, that was disgustingly cheesy, even for you.” Softly beginning to close the chamber door, Zitao peered through the crack one last time. “Stay safe, Jun, we’ll meet you in a little bit.”

As the door shut closed, Junmyeon felt the chamber rapidly begin to heat up, enveloping everything in a sheet of warmth. Squeezing his eyes shut, Junmyeon clenched his fists together, ignoring the dizziness clouding his head.

Time is an illusion, Junmyeon, just an illusion.

ㅤ

┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈

ㅤ

❝ I feel like I’m stuck in a loop I made

Every turn leads back to the same place

Blow out the circuits, tear off the curtains

Set fire to the lions den ❞

ㅤ

??? ??, ????.

?:?? am/pm

ㅤ

Junmyeon felt like he was suffocating, as if the walls were caving in and pushing him as far down as he could go. He couldn’t tell if there was an air supply fueling his lungs, or if he was powering through the seconds with his sheer willpower as a guide.

It was like the atoms of his body were being forcibly rearranged, every inch of his skin burning with an unidentifiable fervor; Junmyeon didn’t know if that was supposed to happen, but he clenched his jaw and suppressed a scream.

It felt like time had stopped, framing Junmyeon under vibrant neon lights and waves of rolling heat, leaving a halo of dampened hair atop his head. How much time was passing? He didn’t know. It could’ve been seconds, minutes, hours—Junmyeon sat dazedly gazing into the blinding luminosity for what seemed like an eternity. He didn’t know if he was going mad, but he was beyond the point of caring.

Time was, after all, an illusion.

ㅤ

┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈

ㅤ

❝ Boss says, keep it movin / You’re nothing special

Forget why you’re doin it / 9 to 5, just cycle

Sorry sir, I didn’t mean to have these dreams

But fuck you cuz I know I’m meant for bigger things ❞

ㅤ

??? ??, ????.

?:?? am/pm

As Henry David Thoreau had once said, “as if you could kill time without injuring an eternity.”

Time was bending, contorting, and dragging Junmyeon alongside it, draining what little energy he had left. Junmyeon was ripped out of his daily cycle of things, but he couldn’t care less.

He was floating; he was burning; he was travelling through an illusion.

Junmyeon was finally able to think clearly, to definitively break through the cycle binding him down. He wanted to make it to wherever this chamber led, to be able to prove himself to the superiors who had binded his hope in the first place. Whatever the barriers of time may be, Junmyeon sets on breaking them all.

Time may be an illusion, but Junmyeon was anything but that.

ㅤ

┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈

ㅤ

❝ I’ve had some failures but got good intentions,

I’ve got ambition that nobody mentions

I promise I’m gonna push it,

I promise I’m gonna get out fine, it’s my life ❞

ㅤ

??? ??, ????.

?:?? am/pm

ㅤ

Junmyeon breathed in sharply, filling his lungs with his first breath of proper air in god-knows-how-long. Glancing around the cramped area, he noticed the crack in the entry, allowing a stream of natural light to flood in. The intensely generated heat was gone, replaced by a mellow warmth that satisfied his core. The insides of the chamber were dimmed, many lights having broken a fuse from his lengthy trip.

Junmyeon squirmed in his seat, attempting to get the blood flowing back into his arms and legs from the lack of use. He flexed his fingers a couple of times, getting rid of the uneasiness before he began pushing the chamber door open, preparing himself for the worse.

As he shoved against the sealed material, he heard Zitao’s words echo through his head: “Time can’t trap you unless you let it.”

He hoped Zitao was doing well, that he was able to submit the lab report and get the break he very well deserved.

He hoped Sehun was safe, that his dear friend was taking proper care of himself, that he somehow got his milk after all this time.

He couldn’t care less of what his boss had to think, but he wished him well; time had passed.

With a final shove, the chamber door finally opened, a blinding ray of sunlight obstructing Junmyeon’s view. Stumbling into the room, Junmyeon covered his eyes cautiously, cringing at the brightness of the area.

Blinking rapidly, Junmyeon waited until the brightness was tolerable, and he then opened his eyes to see—

“Time is a fickle thing; it can be a friend or an enemy, a precious gift or a dreadful curse. Time is an unpredictable force, a complex web—”

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Comments (15)

What a fantastic oneshot and concept! It flows so naturally and it is so interesting! I love the characters and the whole idea of building a time machine, everything about your oneshot was really nice and well thought. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it! It is different from what i usually read and i loved every second of it! :revolving_hearts:

omg, this is such high praise from one of my favourite writers ever :see_no_evil: thank you for all the kind words! i wasn't that proud of this, but i'm really glad you enjoyed it! :purple_heart: :revolving_hearts: :purple_heart:

wTF SIS THIS IS AMAZING, A MASTERPIECE I honestly ugh :triumph: I love the whole time concept you've got going on and it really messed with my head at the end (although there was a lot of foreshadowing huehue I see you) and the idea of time machines and time travelling?? Amazinggg also I love love loveee jun's character like his whole attitude and everything oml this had me blown away, I seriously love it!!! :triumph: :triumph: :purple_heart: :blue_heart:

I'M JUST SEEING THIS NOW BUT OOFLES, THANK YOU SMMM~ :revolving_hearts: :purple_heart: :revolving_hearts: thanks for all the feedback!! I read yours too, and it was short and sweet perfection; you need to write more, Syn :eyes:

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